Protected witness seeks asylum to testify for the murder of journalist

Eleven years after the unresolved murder of the chief editor of the daily newspaper "Dan", appeared a witness who claims to have information about the perpetrators of the murder. This person is located outside of Montenegro and seeks asylum in the country where he is now. The head of the commission that monitors the investigation of the attack on journalist Nikola Markovic said that he had spoken to this person and that he is ready to testify. The owner and chief editor of the daily newspaper "Dan" Dusko Jovanovic was killed on May 27, 2004. The trial in this case to this day has not been completed and the only suspect, as an accomplice, was for now Podgorica resident Damir Mandic.

The head of the commission that monitors the investigation of the attack on journalist Nikola Markovic said that he recently spoke with the person who allegedly could help in shedding light on the murder of Dusko Jovanovic, through the status of a protected witness. Markovic explained for television "Vijesti" that they made contact through an intermediary potential witness in the murder case of the editor of the newspaper "Dan". He said that the person is in a third country and that for security reasons he doesn't want to come to Montenegro. Markovic said that the person has already spoken to the prosecution of the country in which he is located.

Duško Jovanović, editor of the opposition-minded newspaper “Dan” was killed with an automatic weapon on the night of May 27, 2004, as he was leaving his editorial. Jovanović was killed in an ambush in front of the editorial "Dan". The assassins shot him as he was getting into his car. Almost a decade after the murder, it is not yet known who was the man responsible and the motive behind this crime.

During the investigation, which was conducted after the murder, the police was able to come up with only one suspect who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for complicity to the murder. With the charges that he participated in the preparation and execution of the murder, Damir Mandić, has been sentenced to 18 years of prison and at the trial he refused to talk about the other participants. Mandić is accused of driving the car from which the shots were fired at Jovanović, but never admitted that he did. Due to procedural mistakes, the judicial proceedings against Mandic were restored, and the case has not yet been finalized.